Anyone have experiance with mopani wood?

Question

Does mopani wood, like drift wood, leach tenins into the water and discolor it? If so how bad? Does it also lower your pH? How much. Would you recommend mopani wood, drift wood, or neither, or something else. Let me know. What is the difference between the two. I hear mopani wood doesn't rot like driftwood. I'm looking for people with experience, I've already googled everything I could find. Thanks again Y!A!

*One more thing while your here. Know of any snails that don't reproduce like crazy in your tank? Haha!

Answer 1

I've got 4 pieces of Mopani in my 55 gallon tank, and it initially discolored the water (for about 2 days) before the activated carbon in the filter removed the stain... Because the wood releases such small amounts of tannins, it doesn't have as large of an affect on pH as other driftwood might. Mopani wood IS driftwood, just from a different locality (in Africa, instead of North or South America or Asia). Mopani wood is great, but the shapes aren't too intricate. Instead, it provides you with one pale, tan side, and one dark, gnarled side that makes a great hiding spot for fish. Mystery/Apple Snails, and Nerite Snails will only reproduce if you encourage it by specifically setting up the tank geared towards their breeding (Apple/Mystery Snails lay their eggs above the water line and Nerite Snails need brackish to saltwater to reproduce). Malaysian Trumpet Snails and Ramshorn can quickly dominate your tank, so they are best to avoid... Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Soop Nazi

EDIT: In truth, Mopani wood, as with all organic materials, will rot, just at a VERY slow rate.

Answer 2

Your right about the not rotting thing. It will however color your water to a tea color. You can help this by boiling it for a few hours then use more carbon in your filter media to take out the color. You can find larger pieces of driftwood and in many different kinds of shape than with mopani wood. The only company that I has found that sales mopani is zoo med. But most aquarium stores will definitely have drift wood. I have found that both will affect you water the same. With weekly water changes, the color and pH shouldn't bother you too bad Its mainly about availability and looks. It takes driftwood so long to rot, you can easily replace it plus, loaches love driftwood. But its all personal preference really. Hope this helped Hoss.